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Blast From the Past
"Blast from the Past" is episode number 8.1 of the Happy Tree Friends television series. It is the second episode to be written by Mark Zaslove. HTF Episode Description Building a time machine to change the past creates a deadly future for Sniffles! (Part 1) Sniffles’ stitch in time reveals something oddly familiar… (Part 2) Sniffles builds a time machine to fix the past and creates a deadly future. (DVD) Plot Sniffles walks into his living room with some milk and cookies and sets them on a table. A TV can be seen playing a movie with a DeLorean shown, speeding then vanishing through time. Sniffles rewinds the movie he's watching to catch the part he missed, but he accidentally knocks over and breaks his glass of milk upon reaching for it. Seeing the movie rewinding, Sniffles gets an idea. He gets to work welding a lawn mower motor onto his washing machine, adding a few additional items, and in the end he has invented a time machine. He goes back in time to before the glass broke and exits the washer triumphantly, which is standing over a mysterious pool of blood. Before Sniffles can enjoy his snack, however, Lumpy runs in the room, urgently telling Sniffles to follow him. At a nearby park, Toothy sits on the ground by the slide, holding his broken arm and crying while Cuddles and Giggles try to comfort him. Sniffles decides his new invention can fix the situation. As he goes back in time, he discovers that Toothy had fallen face-first onto the ground after going down a slide which slopes upwards. Everything starts rewinding, and when enough time has passed, Sniffles exits the time machine, hammers down the end of the slide until it's flat, and hides in the bushes. Lumpy, Cuddles, Giggles, and Toothy frolic back onto the playground, holding hands, unaware of what Sniffles had done. Everybody splits up to play on various equipment, Toothy obviously going to the slide. He slides down again, but, since Sniffles flattened the end of the slide out, he flies forward at a fast speed. He ends up flying through Lumpy, impaling him through the back and killing Lumpy and (possibly) himself. The sight of this makes Cuddles and Giggles scared, and Sniffles realizes his mistake. He goes back in time once again, but this time, he dismantles the slide by cutting it into pieces and throws them into a dumpster. Lumpy and the kids once again frolic into the playground, and Toothy acts all curious to where the slide went, while a happy and tranquil Sniffles watches. Elsewhere, by the seesaw, Cuddles beckons Lumpy over to play with him. Lumpy hops on, but the seesaw doesn't move. He pushes his body down on it, but he loses his grip on the handle which ends up impaling him. Sniffles turns the clock back again and oils the seesaw so that it moves. Once more, the group happily enters the playground and Cuddles calls Lumpy to the seesaw. This time, however, when Lumpy leaps onto the seesaw, Cuddles is launched into space where he is frozen and then shattered to pieces by a passing satellite. Sniffles turns back the clock, and once more Lumpy launches Cuddles upwards, but this time he flies into the open door of a passing plane. We see that Sniffles is piloting it, and he lands the plane on the playground near the swings. Giggles, playing on the swings, marvels at Sniffles' innovativeness, when the air given off by the engines of the plane pushes her back. She flies into a dumpster, where she emerges unharmed. Unfortunately, the dumpster is picked up by a garbage truck and Giggles is crushed when the back door begins closing. Sniffles gets frustrated and decides to try drastic measures. He goes way back in time, now in prehistoric times. A prehistoric ant and a prehistoric Sniffles watch as Sniffles does some measurements and plants a few acorns in specific areas of the ground. On his way back to the time machine, he sees a prehistoric ant and eats it. After Sniffles leaves, the prehistoric Sniffles does likewise to the prehistoric ant on his shoulder. Back in the present, Sniffles ties a net between the two trees that grew where Sniffles planted the acorns. Once more, the events happen in place. As Giggles flies off the swings, she bounces off the net and flies back into the swings, twirling around the bar until she is crushed by the chains. Sniffles, now fed up with the task of keeping everyone safe, cuts down the trees and dismantles all the playground equipment. With that, he drives the broken playground equipment to the dump as the gang once more frolics onto the scene. They are saddened to see that all the playground equipment is gone, but Lumpy spots a merry-go-round behind some bushes (thus starting the events of Spin Fun Knowin' Ya). The kids get on and Lumpy pushes them, but they shout they want to go faster. Happy to oblige, Lumpy begins pushing the merry-go-round as fast as he can. Toothy ends up losing his grip and flies into a tree, where he breaks his back. The bar that Giggles is holding onto then breaks off and she flies away. Her body is cut in half by a nearby tree stump, and her chest is then impaled by the bar that flew off. Cuddles, now screaming and holding on for dear life, flies off the merry-go-round when his hands get torn off by the force. He ends up flying through the engine of the plane that Sniffles parked earlier, getting shredded in a bloody mess. Lumpy, not realizing what happened, stops pushing the merry-go-round when he runs out of breath. He sees Cuddles' hands still holding onto the bar of the merry-go-round and, realizing what happened, whistles and walks away. Back at Sniffles' house, he is finally about to enjoy his hard-earned glass of milk. His time machine appears above his head, however, and crushes him as it falls to the floor, causing a pool of blood to form beneath it (thus explaining why the pool of blood was there before). Another Sniffles gets out and is about to enjoy his milk when Lumpy comes in and frantically tells him to follow him to the playground, repeating the episode all over again. They leave the house, and Sniffles' milk remains on the table, untouched. Moral "Time heals all wounds!" Deaths #Sniffles unknowingly crushes his future self with his time machine. Later on in the episode, his past self inevitably kills him, forming a paradox. #Toothy dies twice: ##He flies off a merry-go-round and slams into a tree, breaking his back. ##Lower half skinned, after impaling Lumpy. (debatable) #Lumpy dies twice: ##He is impaled by Toothy, who flies off a slide. ##He is impaled on the handle of a seesaw, forcing his spine out of his back. #Cuddles dies twice: ##He flies into space, freezes, and is shattered by a passing satellite. ##He flies through the engine of a plane and is shredded to pieces. #Giggles dies three times: ##She is crushed by a garbage truck. ##She is crushed by the spinning chains of a swing set. ##She is cut in half when she flies into a tree stump and impaled through the chest by a metal bar. #A tiny prehistoric lizard/dinosaur is crushed by Sniffles' time machine. #Two prehistoric ants are eaten by Sniffles and the prehistoric Sniffles. # Prehistoric Sniffles presumably died since his scene is thousands of years before the rest of the episode (debatable since he may have been frozen in ice like Cro-Marmot) (permanent) #Sniffles is crushed by his time machine, when history repeats itself. He is not fully dead, however, as a version of him from the past emerges from the time machine, having no knowledge of his previous labors. Injuries #Prior to the episode, Toothy breaks his arm at first when a slide directs him over Lumpy's head. Goofs #Lumpy has more of a starring role. # As Sniffles rewinds his movie, the same part plays twice. #The first time Sniffles uses his time machine, the glass of milk can be seen returning to the table (or "falling in reverse") without Sniffles on the couch spilling it, but every time it's used after that, Sniffles can be seen. #When Sniffles is crushed by the time machine, you can hear him screaming and "crushing" noises. However, when this happened before, you just hear the "thud" of the time machine landing. #At first, when Sniffles had not spilled his glass of milk and was watching his movie, Lumpy didn't appear, but after Sniffles first used the time machine, he did. #The directions of Lumpy's antlers change numerous times throughout the episode, sometimes during continuous shots. #When Toothy is shown sliding down the slide in reverse, Lumpy is standing next to the slide, watching Toothy fly over his head. After Sniffles changes the past, however, Lumpy is standing further away from the slide and has his back to Toothy. #Sniffles' position changes from behind the slide to next to the slide the first time he goes back in time. #Sniffles has no tail before he removes the slide. #After Sniffles removes the slide, it reappears after Lumpy gets impaled by the seesaw handlebar. #The trees Sniffles planted in prehistoric times grew in length, but the ones in the background never grew, they just remained the same size. #If Sniffles undid all of his actions near the end of the episode, the plane that Sniffles used to save Cuddles shouldn't have been there. # There are a couple goofs reappearing from the original Spin Fun Knowin' Ya: ## Even though Giggles flew away with one of the merry-go-round's poles, all four poles are present when Lumpy stops. ## Cuddles' severed hands don't appear until the merry-go-round comes to a complete stop. ## Considering how outstretched Cuddles and Toothy were when they were getting spun around, they should have hit Lumpy, but they never did. #When Cuddles was launched into space, his voice should not have been heard, as there are no air molecules in space to carry sound. Therefore, he could not scream in space. #When Lumpy first goes to Sniffles, he takes his goggles off after Lumpy is done talking. However, at the end of the episode, he takes his goggles off as Lumpy is talking. #At the end of the episode when Sniffles is crushed by himself, this is shown to be after he has failed and Cuddles, Giggles and Toothy have all died, but Lumpy comes over to the past Sniffles (who has crushed his future self) for help, which, at least at the beginning of the episode, was for Toothy injuring his arm. #*However, time in this episode could be constantly changing (because of time travelers such as Sniffles) rather than be in a loop that always returns to what the timeline was originally. #When Sniffles is using the time machine, he appears right before Lumpy, Cuddles, Giggles, and Toothy come in. He seems to have enough time to fix the problem before they come in. #Sniffles' pocket protector goes in the order from left to right: red, purple, blue. It changes to blue, purple, and red numerous times throughout the episode. #At first when Sniffles reverses the movie, the machine on the TV has just reversed before it sped up to flames. When Sniffles looks at the TV after spilling his milk, the TV hasn't reversed passed that time yet. #The time travel in this episode is severely flawed. Firstly, when Sniffles goes back to before he spilled the milk the first time, he should meet his past self but doesn't. Also, changing time would cause numerous paradoxes, as each time he changes something he is technically leaving his past self no reason to change anything in the first place. #The first time Sniffles uses the time machine in the park, he leaves the machine on the middle of it. However, it disappears when Lumpy and the others got there, and Sniffles wasn't shown moving it. #When Cuddles was shredded by engine of plane, his scream still heard. #There are drops of oil visible on the fulcrum of the seesaw after Sniffles finishes lubricating it. However, it disappears when Cuddles and Lumpy arrive there. #The first time Cuddles asked Lumpy to sit on the seesaw, Lumpy simply went there and jumped on it. However, the times after that, Lumpy sprinted and leaped onto the seesaw. Trivia *The title of this episode has two meanings: *# There's a 1999 movie with the same name. *# It's a term that means to quickly remember a previous moment in your life just by the sight of an object. * It could be said that Sniffles started the Happy Tree Friends' long reputation of dying over and over since his influence on the past altered a situation resulting in Toothy's minor injury to one that results in almost everyone's death. (The description on the HTF website saying that "Building a time machine to change the past creates a deadly future for Sniffles!" may also be implying that too.) *When Lumpy goes to Sniffles' house and tell him to go with him to the playground Lumpy yells: "Hey, you! You gotta help me, you know, I get here when uh, I guess you already know it. Come on, follow me!!". *In the beginning of the scene where Toothy breaks his arm in reverse, the text "Track toothy with camera" quickly flashes twice at the top right corner of the screen. *The movie Sniffles is watching at the start of the episode is Back to the Future since you could see a shot of the DeLorean speeding off and leaving two fiery trails behind, one of the many iconic events of the movie. *The scene towards the end of the episode with the merry-go-round is a remake of the episode Spin Fun Knowin' Ya. In other words, Sniffles likely caused the events in the short. *There are numerous notable differences between the merry-go-round scene in this episode and Spin Fun Knowin' Ya on which the scene is based. #In the original, Giggles didn't have the diamond mark on her head, Toothy had two stray hairs atop his head, and Cuddles' cheeks were white at the beginning. These are fixed in the present episode. #In the original, Cuddles, Giggles, and Toothy have their mitten hands throughout the episode, while now their fingers can be seen. #In the original, Lumpy is neither paying attention to the kids nor smiling. In this episode, he is smiling at and watching the kids. #In the original, only Cuddles laughs and tells Lumpy to go faster. In this episode, all three laugh and tell Lumpy to go faster. #In this episode, Toothy flinches after Lumpy begins pushing them faster, whereas he didn't do that in the original episode. #In this episode, Toothy's expression changes before he flies off the merry-go-round, whereas in the original it didn't change until after. #When Toothy flies off the merry-go-round in this episode, he flies in the opposite direction than he did in Spin Fun Knowin' Ya. #In the original, Toothy's blood splatters in a design, but in this episode it makes more of a spaced out splatter. #In this episode, the pole that Giggles holds onto is hollow when it breaks off. In the previous episode, when it breaks off, it is solid. # In this episode,during Giggles cut in half from merry-go-round,the background is little zoomed out. #In the original, Giggles is cut completely in half by the stump. In the present episode her spinal cord remains intact. #In the original, one cannot see Giggles' teeth when she is cut in half, but they are present in this episode. #In the original, chunks of Cuddles' body can be seen coming out of the airplane's engine. In this episode, only his blood flies out. #After Toothy and Giggles fly off the merry-go-round in this episode, Cuddles yells, "Oh my god I'm gonna die, not this old death again!" whereas in Spin Fun Knowin' Ya he shouts, "Alright! Alright! I don't wanna die!" #In Spin Fun Knowin' Ya, Cuddles' hands face the wrong way at the end. In this episode, they face the right way. #In the original, when Lumpy makes the "OK" sign, he has five fingers. But, in this episode, when he makes it, he has four fingers. *To date, this episode marks the only time in the series Sniffles was able to eat and hold down an ant. *In total, Sniffles travels back in time seven times. *The order of the events that takes place are roughly: ##Sniffles plants the trees in prehistoric times. ##Sniffles chops down the trees and dismantles the playground equipment. ##Lumpy, Cuddles, Giggles, and Toothy arrive at the playground. ##Toothy breaks his arm or Toothy impales Lumpy or Toothy walks away from the spot the slide was in or Lumpy, Cuddles, Giggles, and Toothy find the merry-go-round. ##Lumpy is impaled by the seesaw handle or Cuddles is flung into space or Cuddles is rescued by Sniffles or Toothy gets flung into a tree. ##Giggles is crushed by a garbage truck or Giggles is crushed by a swing-set or Giggles hits a stump and splits in half. ##Cuddles is flung into an airplane propeller. ##Lumpy asks Sniffles to help him deal with Toothy's broken arm or Lumpy asks Sniffles to help him deal with the deaths of Toothy, Giggles, and Cuddles. ##Sniffles knocks over his glass of milk or Sniffles is crushed by the time machine. ##Sniffles begins building the time machine or Sniffles goes to help Lumpy. *The moral in this episode is the same one used in Better Off Bread. *When this episode aired along with Chew Said a Mouthful and See What Develops on YouTube, the alternate title for the trio of segments was named "Behind the Eight Ball". Lumpy, Toothy, and Giggles appear in all three episodes. Also, Toothy dies in all three and Giggles dies twice, while Lumpy survives in all three. *This is the first episode where Sniffles has a starring role and survives. (Though it may not count, since he got crushed by Sniffles from the past timeline.) *This is the third episode that a character/characters die(s) multiple times. The first is Better Off Bread and the second is Remains to be Seen. *One of Cuddles' deaths is similar to Giggles' death in Wingin' It. *Almost the entire episode is similar and could be inspired by the Space Goofs episode Our Ancestors The Humans, with some of the original transcript here. However, both do indeed focus on time travel. Even present times are shown, just like in the inspiration *When Toothy slides backwards, he sounds like he's saying "Harold!". When he says that line, he also sounds like Mickey Mouse, a well-known cartoon character. *The YouTube thumbnail for Part 1 spoils one of Lumpy's deaths. Category:TV episodes Category:Ants' episodes Category:Episodes Category:Rebel Without a Cause Category:Regular Episodes Category:Behind the Eight Ball